Cognitive Psychology Book Questions Chapter 9

12) Items high on prototypicality have ____ family resemblances. a) no b) weak c) moderate d) strong

d) strong

______is a "typical" member of a category. a) A prototype b) An exemplar c) A unit d) A component

a) A prototype

Which of the following statements is NOT cited in your text as a reason why categories are useful? a) Categories provide definitions of groups of related objects. b) Categories help us understand behaviors that we might otherwise find baffling. c) Categories serve as a valuable tool for making inferences about things that belong to other categories. d) Categories have been called "pointers to knowledge" because once you know an object's category, you know a lot of general things about it.

a) Categories provide definitions of groups of related objects.

Which approach to categorization can more easily take into account atypical cases such as flightless birds? a) Exemplar b) Prototype c) Definitional d) Network

a) Exemplar

Which of the following would be in a basic level category? a) Truck b) Vehicle c) Pickup truck d) Transportation

a) Truck

When a participant is asked to list examples of the category vegetables, it is most likely that a) a carrot would be named before eggplant. b) an eggplant would be named before carrot. c) a carrot and eggplant would have an equal likelihood of being named first. d) the order of examples is completely random, varying from participant to participant.

a) a carrot would be named before eggplant.

The principle illustrated when most people are able to recognize a variety of examples of chairs even though no one category member may have all of the characteristic properties of "chairs" (e.g., most chairs have four legs but not all do) is a) family resemblance. b) prototypicality. c) graded membership. d) instance theory.

a) family resemblance.

Based on the information your textbook provided about different category types, jumping from ____ categories results in the largest gain in information. a) superordinate level to basic level b) basic level to subordinate level c) subordinate level to basic level d) basic level to superordinate level

a) superordinate level to basic level

17) For the category "fruit," people give a higher typicality rating to "banana" than to "kiwi." Knowing that, we can also reason that a) the word "fruit" will lead to a larger priming effect for banana than for kiwi. b) when people are asked to list all the fruits they can think of, kiwi will usually appear on their list before banana. c) neither kiwi nor banana are likely to be the fruit "closest" to the prototype of the fruit category. d) people will have a similar number of exemplars for kiwi and banana.

a) the word "fruit" will lead to a larger priming effect for banana than for kiwi.

Which of the following represents a basic level item? a) Musical instrument b) Guitar c) Rock guitar d) Paul McCartney's bass guitar

b) Guitar

Which of the following is an example of the sentence verification technique? a) Indicate whether the following statement was previously presented: An apple is a fruit. YES NO b) Indicate whether the following statement is true: An apple is a fruit. YES NO c) Fill in the blank in the following sentence: An apple is a(n) ____ . d) Fill in the blank in the following sentence: A(n) ____ is a fruit.

b) Indicate whether the following statement is true: An apple is a fruit. YES NO

A task for determining how prototypical an object is would be a) a fill-in-the-blank task where participants generate paired members within a category. b) a task where participants rate the extent to which each member represents the category title. c) a task where participants rate the extent to which category members resemble one another. d) a fill-in-the-blank task where participants generate the category classification for a list of members.

b) a task where participants rate the extent to which each member represents the category title.

Two different definitions of ____ offered by your book include (a) "the mental representation of a class or individual," and (b) "the meaning of objects, events, and abstract ideas." a) exemplars b) concepts c) units d) prototypes

b) concepts

22) Imagine that a young child is just learning about the category "dog." Thus far, she has experienced only two dogs, one a small poodle and the other a large German shepherd. On her third encounter with a dog, she will be LEAST likely to correctly categorize the animal as a dog if that animal a) matches the size of the poodle but is of a different breed. b) is a dog that does not bark. c) matches an exemplar of one of the dogs she has experienced. d) is similar to an "average" for the dogs she has encountered.

b) is a dog that does not bark.

Olin and Bob are neighbors. Olin loves birds and his father works for the zoo. He has been to a dozen bird sanctuaries, and he and his dad go on bird watching hikes once a month. In contrast, Bob doesn't think much about birds. His only contact with them is in his backyard. It would be correct to say that Olin's standard probably involves a) more prototypes than Bob's. b) more exemplars than Bob's. c) more prototypes and more exemplars than Bob's. d) the same prototypes and exemplars as Bob's.

b) more exemplars than Bob's.

Rosch found that participants respond more rapidly in a same-different task when presented with "good" examples of colors such as "red" and "green" than when they are presented with "poor" examples such as "pink" or "light green." The result of this experiment was interpreted as supporting the ____ approach to categorization. a) exemplar b) prototype c) network d) parallel processing

b) prototype

Rosch and coworkers conducted an experiment in which participants were shown a category label, like car or vehicle, and then, after a brief delay, saw a picture. The participants' task was to indicate as rapidly as possible whether the picture was a member of the category. Their results showed a) the priming effect was most robust for superordinate level categories. b) the priming effect was most robust for basic level categories. c) no measurable priming effect. d) the priming effect was the same for superordinate and basic level categories.

b) the priming effect was most robust for basic level categories.

14) Which of the following reaction time data sets illustrates the typicality effect for the bird category, given the following three trials? (NOTE: Read data sets as RTs for Trial 1: Trial 2: Trial 3) Trial 1: An owl is a bird. Trial 2: A penguin is a bird. Trial 3: A sparrow is a bird. a) 583: 518: 653 msec b) 518: 583: 653 msec c) 583: 653: 518 msec d) 653: 583: 518 msec

c) 583: 653: 518 msec

24) According to Rosch, the ____ level of categories is the psychologically "privileged" level of category that reflects people's everyday experience. a) superordinate b) prototypical c) basic d) subordinate

c) basic

Not all of the members of everyday categories have the same features. Most fish have gills, fins, and scales. Sharks lack the feature of scales, yet they are still categorized as fish. This poses a problem for the ____ approach to categorization. a) prototype b) exemplar c) definitional d) family resemblance

c) definitional

The definitional approach to categorization a) is not well suited for geometrical objects but works for familiar everyday objects. b) sets definite criteria called family resemblances that all category members must have. c) doesn't work well for most natural objects like birds, trees, and plants. d) was proposed to replace the prototype approach.

c) doesn't work well for most natural objects like birds, trees, and plants.

Priming occurs when presentation of one stimulus a) disrupts the processing of another stimulus. b) acts as a cue that tells the participant when his or her response was correct. c) facilitates the response to another stimulus that usually follows closely in time. d) relates to a prototype in a way that is unrelated to associated exemplars.

c) facilitates the response to another stimulus that usually follows closely in time.

According to the typicality effect, a) objects in a category have a family resemblance to one another. b) objects that are not typical stand out and so are more easily remembered. c) items that are high in prototypicality are judged more rapidly as being in a group. d) we remember typical objects better than non-typical objects.

c) items that are high in prototypicality are judged more rapidly as being in a group.

If we were conducting an experiment on the effect knowledge has on categorization, we might compare the results of expert and non-expert groups. Suppose we compare horticulturalists to people with little knowledge about plants. If we asked the groups to name, as specifically as possible, five different plants seen around campus, we would predict that the expert group would primarily label plants on the ____ level, while the non-expert group would primarily label plants on the ____ level. a) superordinate; subordinate b) superordinate; basic c) subordinate; basic d) basic; subordinate

c) subordinate; basic

_____are actual members of a category that a person has encountered in the past. a) Icons b) Prototypes c) Units d) Exemplars

d) Exemplars

Which approach to categorization involves forming a standard representation based on an average of category members that a person has encountered in the past? a) Exemplar b) Network c) Typicality d) Prototype

d) Prototype

Which of the following members would most likely be ranked highest in prototypicality in the "birds" category? a) Crow b) Goose c) Hummingbird d) Sparrow

d) Sparrow

25) People playing the parlor game "20 Questions" often use hierarchical organization strategies. One player asks up to 20 yes/no questions to determine the identity of an object another player has selected. The player's questions usually start as general and get more specific as the player approaches a likely guess. Initial questions asked by a player are often one of three questions: "Is it an animal?" "Is it a vegetable?" and "Is it a mineral?" Each of these three questions describes which level of categorization? a) Typical b) Basic c) Subordinate d) Superordinate

d) Superordinate

The prototype approach to categorization states that a standard representation of a category is based on a) the definition of the category. b) a universal set of category members. c) a defined set of category members. d) category members that have been encountered in the past.

d) category members that have been encountered in the past.

23) Research suggests that the ____ approach to categorization works best for small categories (e.g., U.S. presidents). a) semantic network b) definitional c) prototype d) exemplar

d) exemplar